Floor panels are an excellent option for a flooring system, providing an excellent balance between cost, durability, and resiliency.
Vinyl flooring is typically manufactured in sheets or rectangular/square panels. Each sheet or panel sometimes utilizes an adhesive (on the underside) or a connection element, such as a tongue and groove system on the edges, to connect multiple sheets/panels together. Once assembled and secured together, a surface area having any size or shape may be covered.
Since polyvinyl chloride is a material having high density and weight, vinyl flooring having sole or a majority composition of polyvinyl chloride produces several negative properties including, but not limited to: (1) high thermal conductivity, (2) lower resiliency, (3) high rigidity, and (4) limiting noise reduction. As a result, vinyl flooring is often prepared from laminates that incorporate layers of different materials or layers of the same material having different compositions.
Cork, as an alternative flooring surface, and more specifically as a layer to vinyl flooring is well known. Cork layering provides vinyl flooring with many favorable properties, including feeling, improved resiliency, impermeability, as well as inherent low thermal conductivity, low density and good energy absorption.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,272, as illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, describes wall tiles 10 made from a mass of cork granules 12 dispersed and bonded together in a matrix of polyvinyl chloride resin. More specifically, each wall tile 10 is shown having a first layer 14 made of the cork composition of this invention that, and overlaid with a second layer 16 of any desired pressure sensitive adhesive. After the adhesive application step, adhesive layer 16 may be overlaid with a commercially available peel-sheet layer 18, to protect the adhesive until time of use. Such a construction of material 10 may not only be used for wall tiles, but, since it is flexible, it may be used to cover curved surfaces such as lamp bases, waste baskets, drinking glasses or cups to insulate them, or any other desired use of the sheet-like structure 10.
Additionally, Japanese Patent Application JP 19950312633 1995 1130, as illustrated in FIG. 4, describes an economically low priced flooring incorporating wooden powder with laminated layers, including a resin layer, an adhesive bond, a cork layer and a transparent surface layer. As a result, the described flooring provides excellent durability without having to compromise cushioning. More specifically, the vinyl chloride resin layer 1 (having 50-2000 kg/cm), the adhesive bond 2, the cork layer 3 and the transparent surface layer 4 are subsequently laminated. The resin layer 1 is formed of vinyl chloride resin having 600-1300 degree of average degree of polymerization, a plasticizer of 30-120 pts.wt. at per 100 pts.wt. of resin and wooden powder having 50-200 pts.wt. It has 2-20 mm in thickness. The cork layer 3 is formed of natural cork or compressed cork, and is 0.3-3 mm in thickness.
In each of the aforementioned patents, products with a separate homogenous cork layer is described. The cork layer has been added to improve either surface aesthetics or overall material properties. Additionally, there are known products that incorporate a composition of blended recycled cork with rubber. However, the advantageous properties of cork have not been fully exploited in the use of vinyl tiles, as such that the vinyl tile fully makes use of cork particulate.